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May runs away from Brexit vote

Reports are starting to filter out that Theresa May has cancelled tomorrow’s key vote on her desperate Brexit withdrawal deal. The BBC has said reports are unconfirmed, but Bloomberg has reported it as definite and other outlets are coming out now with similar news.

All this after repeated assertions by May and her ministers that it would not be pulled – but then it’s hardly the first time something that definitely would not or (would) happen did (or didn’t) happen after May’s firm commitment.

May has spent the last few days talking to MPs to try to reduce the scale of her defeat in the Commons vote to ‘just’ fifty – but has clearly failed abjectly.

SKWAWKBOX comment:

As Jeremy Corbyn said at the weekend, the absence of the vote does not negate the validity of Labour’s no-confidence motion – if anything, her cowardice strengthens it.

Of course, the deal is only being pulled because the EU is prepared to continue negotiating on what was supposedly the final and only deal.

As Corbyn knew and said all along.

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She’s well past even something as complex as “Party before County” , she down to the even more basic “Loyalty to Self first and foremost,” She knows it’s around the corner, quick ferret away the last shreds she can (£££ and “favours” ) , tossing the party on the handcart to hell she tossed the country on long long ago.

Would it be too cynical to conclude that the reason TM has done this today, rather than tomorrow, is to divert attention away from Labour’s Urgent Question about the Tory’s use of public funds to finance a clandestine smear campaign against Jeremy.

That thought crossed my mind SteveH. May regime is lurching from hour to hour now scrabbling to stay in place as long as they can string it out.
I’m even beginning to wonder if there is something, where Parliament is not required, that isn’t completed or signed yet, something May set her heart on or promised to achieve… she comes over to me as a plodding, blinkered, pure technocrat.

Thanks very much for that SteveH. It’s good to see so much response. TPP had gone off my radar after being heavily against TTIP and CETA I took my eye off that ball. Foreign interventions being where my main focus has been lately.

Looks like we’re heading for No Deal.
Sure the EU will negotiate.
But they won’t give her what she wants (and needs) to buy off her opponents.
Corbyn could renegotiate, because what he wants will suit the EU too.
So we still need a general election.

“Corbyn could renegotiate, because what he wants will suit the EU too.”

‘Fear of Jeremy Corbyn-led government prompts tough EU line on Brexit’

Brussels vows to protect single market from Labour’s left‑wing policies

“Britain faces restrictions on post-Brexit trade and draconian measures to enforce free-market policies because the European Union fears a future Jeremy Corbyn government.

Senior European officials have told The Times that concerns over Labour’s economic policies are the main reason for the EU’s insistence on a tough “level playing field mechanism” in a future deal after Britain leaves.”

Ahh but it is what the people want , to challenge that status quo of the neolib EU , and one only need look at France/Paris etc and the yellow jackets to see the very popular policies that Corbyn has ,, being adopted by them IF they can find a suitable leader . Jean Luc Mélenchon is not quite there yet , maybe with more work he could emerge much more as a viable leader of the left .One thing is for sure , the utter shite that is the Tory party has very little to offer the EU apart from everlasting grief .

What Starmer wants for a LP Brexit, probably would be quite acceptable to the EU, in that it probably offers not much more than appeasement to the leave vote and is Brexit in name only (we cannot know this for sure without an election, actual negotiations and then ratification from Brussels). it deals with Ireland, but possibly/probably doesn’t offer any of the advantages that might accrue from a cleaner break to compensate for some of the disadvantages of not being a full member. TBF to Corbyn, Starmer’s tentative solution isn’t, as I understand it, particularly what Corbyn wanted.

As the vote has only been postponed rather than cancelled will it still be possible for MPs to debate and vote on Hilary Benn’s amendment. As Benn’s amendment effectively votes down TM’s Bill and rules out ‘No Deal’ this would still represent a significant victory.

The statement that the Government’s business motion “allows votes on amendments before a vote on the motion to approve”. (Institute For Government, 5hrs ago) looks simple enough, but the ensuing legalese suggests otherwise. There appear to be any number of get out clauses and uncertainties as to how the govt. may act, following any such amendments.

However. As I was driving, I was listening to an interview with ?? (name on tip of tongue) as a representative of Labour.

What struck me was how confused and mealy-mouthed and fork-tongued the Labour position will seem to the majority of punters. I was reminded of the embarrassment I used to feel on the doorstep when Blairites were selling ‘triangulation’ : i.e a slightly ameliorated version of Tory policy.

It’s politically really not a good look, and doesn’t smack of an alternative leadership.

If the Party is serious about a general election, the performance needs to have a lot more credibility.

What I would suggest is for labour to take the initiative and hammer home the fact that Brexit was a minority vote based on an artificially shrunken electorate and an appallingly badly structured referendum.

The one thing that has been useful over the past couple of years is the demonstration that ‘Brexit’ has no logical rationale based in reality.

I’m not suggesting that ‘coming out’ will be easy – the failure to get ahead of the game is the major strategic failing of an inexperienced Labour leadership.

But, no – the Corbyn leadership has not been ‘dead clear’ on the central issue. It has been afraid of the Tory’s populist shadow. This really came home to me listening to that excerpt at lunchtime today – it was not a convincing image of a government in waiting … and you’re hearing this from a sympathetic standpoint. But there is a time to get really real!

I haven’t got many years left, and I’m not going to waste what there is pretending that crap policy and strategy is ‘clever politics’ if the result is to bugger up my children and grandchildren’s future in some misguided debacle.

The problem is a political one – a problem in which Labour is complicit in effectively signing up to Tory fantasies and all the nonsense about ‘honouring’ a totally inconclusive, poorly structured referendum that was heading towards chaos from the start.

A good driver knows when to slow down and – if necessary – reverse if an out-of-control juggernaut is heading towards you.

“Theresa ducked the debate.
Then chickened out of a vote.
But this turkey did vote for Christmas.
‘The end of Theresa’ I quote.”
Yes we also mustn’t let the Govt funding of a private company to smear Corbyn fade!
Minister Duncan on BBC saying how shocked he was – pull the other one?
If the evidence confirms it Tory heads at the highest level must roll!
They will probably make a senior civil servant resign and take the blame but perhaps the desperate establishment are in serious, serious trouble?